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Cattle are not abundant, fheep are rare, and the beef, excepting that from Mada-gafcar, is not good : the cows brought from Europe yield a tolerable quantity of milk,thofe of the ifland but little.
If the Ifle of France had been a foreign colony, I fhould give a Iketch of the man-ners and cuftoms of the inhabitants; but as all I could fay is already known, I fhallAmply point out its utility and importance to the metropolis.
Importance of the JJle of France .
By the death of thoufands, and by confiderable pecuniary Ioffes, have mod of thenations of Europe purchafed the eftablilhments they have formed in Afia. Whateverconfequence may ultimately refult from the poffeffion of thefe diftant colonies, to fup-port and preferve them is a matter of abfolute necelfity, as long as any one European power continues to maintain a commerce with India. This commerce in itfelf may bea matter of indifference to us, and even ufelefs, if any can truly be fo c'onfidered in agreat ftate ; but fhould we difcontinue it, we fhould be placed in a ftate of dependence,and render ourfelves the tributaries of thofe by whom it might be continued.
Colonies have always been formed for the advantage of the mother-country : inthis light they have ever been contemplated ; and fhould they at times have failed toanfwer the purpofed end, the caufe of the failure is more to be attributed to radicalvices in the eftablifhment of them, than to unfortunate occurrences, or fuch as couldnot have been forefeen.
In looking to the value of a colony two things are to be duly weighed ; firflly,the draught of men and money from the metropolis which they occafion, and fecondly,the refources and advantage prefented by their pofition and their commerce.
Under the firfl afpedt, if the expences of the eftablifhment are not counterbalancedby confiderable profits or other material benefit, the confequent lofs of men and moneyis burthenfome to the ftate; but on the, other hand thofe colonies which by their pofi-tion can readily be clofed againft foreign commerce *, and the population of whichfails to increafe in proportion with their wealth, are of lingular utility to the me-tropolis.
Now, infular colonies prefent this double advantage, they can at pleafure be laidopen to or clofed againft foreign trade ; and they hold out no profpect of ever be-coming hurtful to the mother-country by their increafing wealth or population.
Continental colonies, on the reverfe, poffefs in themfelves many inconveniencies;and though perhaps they prefent more extended refources in their larger population,and the greater activity and value of their trade, in thefe very momentary advantagesthey carry with them the feeds of diforder and revolt, feeds perpetually difpofed togerminate and ripen to maturity. In fact, after occafioning their mother-countrymaterial facrifices of both men and money, when once they attain a certain pitch ofprofperity and power, they rebel againft their parent, and ceafe to acknowledge herauthority, of which we fee an example in the conduct of the United States of America m the laft century.
c °knies naturally belongs to the metropolis, and other nations thou Id be admitted
° V' L C them only at the option of the fovereign government. In this cafe alfo the foreigner
u gnt to pay an extra tax on the importation as well as on the export of merchandize ; for, if he werepeimitted to buy or fell without paying fuch extra duties, the colonift, at all times inclined to buy asth 6a ^ 33 w ould fell his produce in many iuftances in preference to the ftranger, to the ruin of
e merchant of the mother-country. To this evident injury is to be added the rife of price of colonialpro uce, and the diminution of that of European commodities, confequent on a full market and the com-'v n .° re %uers, the fatal effect of which is the deftrudtion of the commerce of the mother-country,aad the annihilation of its navy.
The